The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1887-05-26
Aarifnltnrf.
Clever.

Read vhai different authorities ssy
shout clover And We believe good deal
Of il, too. weil-cnred clover hay will
give the beat favored butter. is best for The
growing animal and 10 good for the soil 10
fiiting for other cropa Sow clover.
OF the great value OF clover for improv-
Ing the soil. says the Baltimore Sans. there
can be do doubt, bat how il does 30 is not
30 easily understood As shown by an
Alysis clover is rich 10 nitrogen, phosphcr.
ic acid and potash the three most essential
elements Of plant food Now where does
clover get this supersbundance Of ieriiliz-
ing elemenisY As 10 the nitrogen. it is
still an unsettled question whether the
through lie leaves or from the subsoil
through It's deeply penetrating roots. But
be this rs il may. repeated analysis show
that the soil upon which crop Of clover
is grown--even after II 10 cut and taken
of contains considerably more nitrogen
than II did before the clover WAS there.
SO that !! this re- enforcement Of nitrogen
did not come from the atmosphere it Ger
tsinly must come from the subsoil. But,
rs said before, however uncertain the
source from which the nitrogen is derived
il is admitted that the potash and rhos
phoric acid without which no crop can be
SUCCESSFULLY grown both come from the
subsoi. The anaIyzation Of corn on the
cob. for Instance. shows its richness 10
potash - the cobs particularly. and to such
an extent that. when burned the leach
ings Of the ashes produce lye SO strong
that our grsndmothers often made nse Of
it instead Of pearl ash to tighten their bis
cults and other pastry. Phosphoric acid.
although not SO we'll known, but equally
as essential to plant growth as potash, is
the other element 10 which clover is so
rich. Now as continual cropping takes
from the soil more or less of these two
essential elements it follows. as mater
OF course, that unless these two elements
are restored TO the soil 10 some way CON-
plete depletion must eventually take
place. Turning under clover will do It
for awhile, but As it returns to the soil no
more than it took from it we must com
plement it from some other source, or
complete exhaustion is sure to follow. in
this connection it we're well to quote the
language OF one OF the most scientific
farmers (Mechi OF England, who, in
speaking Of the robbery OF land in this
country, said: 1--WE have seen the earlier
settled portions Of America already ex-
hausted and impoverished, and now the
virgin soils Of the far West are undergo
ing the same depletion. But We need
not go to England for advice in this mat
ter. We may go farther back and take
lessons Of the heathern Chinee. The en-
pire Of China, with its hundreds Of mill
ions more Of population to support than
this country contains, has done SO for
more than two thousand years from its
hand titled fields alone, without the i'm
portation, until lately, OF u single grain OF
food from any other quarter. The secret
OF its ability to accomplish this lies in the
fact that not q single element Of fertility
which experience has taught them will aid
IN maintaining the fertility of the soil =
not even the clippings Of the barbershops
lis allowed TO go to waste, but is carefully
saved and applied to the land. So that,
with all our Wanted knowledge and i'm
proved machinery, the Chinese are just as
far 10 advance OF us or the more skilled
cultivators Of Europe as the latter are Of
the very ranchmen on our Pacific coast. =
burlington Free Press.